Feel Good Reviews!

I haven't checked in a while, so I ran into two reviews and I was pleasantly surprised, and happy to read them. As I've said before, this is the best part of the job.

This first one is short and sweet. I like that he was expecting one thing, and I gave him something unexpected and surprising. Plus, every writer wants to hear that they have written a realistic and relatable character. 

Reading Multiples

When I was younger I had several rules for reading. 1) I had to read every book I started. No matter what I had to slog through it. 2) I could only read one book at a time. 3) there are several other rules, but none so easy to express or remember as the first two. 

What happened to rule #1? Well, I realized that life was too short for bad books. It takes a lot for me to give up on a book, but I will. I will set a book aside if I start reading it and realize it's just not worth it. I have better things to do. 

Last Cook?

It's been a while since I read a Robin Cook novel. Medical thrillers are fun, and because I'm not in the medical field, they're new and novel. Robin Cook's books, as I remember, are fast-paced and interesting. So I was surprised it had been such a long while since I read one. 

I remember now . . . that besides being fun, fast-paced, and new, they're also fairly poorly written. 

Work Intrudes

 I’ve had to take a break from my creative writing. Which is too bad. I was hitting a good daily clip of writing at least 600 words a day. But, as always, work and life intrude on creative writing and I had to refocus my attention for a bit. 

BUT, that doesn’t mean I’ve not been writing. In fact, the work that intruded had everything to do with writing. 

Next New Book

As a blossoming, somewhat seasoned writer and self-publisher, I get asked often for advice from other writers. Sometimes I'm asked to take a look at a book and give it a review. Such is the case. 

You know what . . . despite what might jump to mind when you first look at the title and the cover, it's a darn good book. In fact, I'm a bit jealous. Why?

Weekly Writing Status Update - 6

I feel like these aren't doing much, but it was recommended to me by that book, and I've pledged to do it for 50 updates, that will be almost a year, so I'm going to keep plugging away even if they don't feel immediately impactful. If there's one thing I feel like I'm good at, it's hanging in there for stupid even pointless exercises and relationships and friendships and even jobs, long after I should have quit, and long after others would have quit.

Last week was a good-ish week for writing. I kept up with my writing 300 words a day for every day except one. Why did I miss that one day? I can't remember now. I just know I did. 

More Essentials of Writing a Novel

I love how every now and then, in a book, on social media, in life . . . anywhere, these little nuggets show up that speak to a person. They hit me and I think, "BOOM! that makes sense" . . . or "that resonates," or even better, "That's what THAT means!" 

Many of these I try to file here in the blog as evershades or sox entries (see HERE or HERE), but many others get lost or integrated into my other blog hoi polloi.

This one is getting it's own post. 

Essentials

I was listening to a podcast for a while, James Thayer's podcast on novel writing. It was good but each time I listened to it, usually on my commute, I found myself wanting to take notes and really listen, not background listen as I tend to do when I listen on the drive. 

So, I've stopped listening to the podcast. Which is too bad, I really liked it. 

Griffin Four

It's an interesting way to start a book. To talk about cavalry sabers being repurposed to machetes but WEB Griffin always does things this way, and then the reader is captured on that path for the first part of the story, and sometimes even further than that. 

I'm onto the fourth book in this series. I'm on the fifth book in the Clancy Series, I'm on the second book in the Martin series, I finished the Stranger Times series, and I'm stuck on the third book in the Sackett series. So, it feels good to keep moving through this series.

Weekly Writing Status Update - 5

So, the biggest thing that I should provide an update on with this status post is about my 300 words a day goal. How did it go? Is it positive?

Overall it was a good  . . . and IS a good exercise. First, I'm stunned that 300 words really isn't that many words. I can knock out 300 words in no time.